Salt lake city: Nearly a century after Helen Foster Snow first traveled to China as a young journalist, Utah children are carrying forward her bridge-building legacy through cross-cultural friendship. The Helen Foster Snow Foundation hosted a Chinese cultural experience event at This is the Place Heritage Park, an immersive living history museum, featuring the premiere of "Bridge to a Shared Future," a U.S.-China co-produced documentary tracing the pioneering journalist's path through a modern lens.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Dan Stephenson, a board member of the foundation, expressed the rewarding nature of the event as local children practiced calligraphy and conversed in Chinese, honoring Helen Foster Snow's legacy of cross-cultural friendship. "Almost 100 years ago, Helen Foster Snow went to China and accomplished amazing things and formed deep connections and people-to-people bonds with many people in China. We are always looking to follow her example in trying to build bridges and trying to understand other people around the world," he commented.

The documentary follows Adam Foster, Helen's great-nephew and president of the Helen Foster Snow Foundation, as he retraces his great-aunt's footsteps through Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, and Baoji in China. Helen lived in China as a foreign correspondent in the early 20th century, where she met and married journalist Edgar Snow, the first Western reporter to interview Mao Zedong.

During China's civil war and the resistance war against Japanese aggression, Helen interviewed Mao and other Communist Party of China leaders, ultimately writing more than 60 books and articles, including "Inside Red China" and "My China Years." Her husband's "Red Star Over China," published in 1937, has been considered a classic, profoundly shaping Western public opinion and policy toward China.

The hour-long film "Bridge to a Shared Future" captures dramatic changes in the cities Helen once knew, showing her former residences and historic sites through Foster's contemporary perspective. Adam Foster highlighted the importance of learning from Helen's journey, emphasizing the significance of the relationship between the U.S. and China as one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world.

The screening, co-organized with the China Literature and Art Foundation and Shaanxi Tourism Group, drew Chinese-language students, their parents, university representatives, and community members. A panel discussion with the creative team followed the screening. The event was part of a roadshow titled "Capture the Moments of Friendship: a Cinematic Record of China-U.S. Relations."

Zhang Keke, general manager of Shaanxi Tourism Group's Film and Television Cultural Co., emphasized the symbolic importance of bringing the film to Utah, where Helen's journey began. Born in Cedar City in 1907, Helen later moved to Salt Lake City before high school and set sail for Asia in 1931, aspiring to become a writer. Zhang noted the renewal of goodwill that has been warmly remembered in China ever since.

Stephenson, who also serves as executive director of Economic Bridge International, highlighted the unique international perspective that Helen's legacy gave Utah. "There is more of an international outlook and a willingness to look beyond borders and connect with other people regardless of where they are," he said. "Tonight's event was a great example of that, and watching the documentary film showing Helen's life story, I'm sure, was impactful for many of the young people here."